Saturday, August 29, 2015

Many airmen lost their lives in the Salton Sea in WWII

Sonar image of World War II-era Avenger torpedo bomber at the bottom of the Salton Sea. The plane crashed into the sea on Dec. 30, 1947. Navy divers discovered the wreck in January, 1999 while searching for a Piper Cherokee that went down in the sea - killing a husband and wife - on Christmas Day, 1998. (Photo: Riverside County Sheriff’s Department)

Denise Goolsby
The Desert Sun

The primary function of Naval Air Station, Salton Sea during World War II was to serve as an operational base for U.S. Navy seaplanes. In addition, it provided target facilities for the area — pile and floating targets distributed throughout the sea were used for torpedo and skip-bombing practice — and serviced sea planes on ferry flights and emergency stops.

Unfortunately, as happened across the U.S. and abroad during military training operations, many fliers lost their lives preparing for war. The Salton Sea has claimed its share of servicemen. In some cases, the inland lake is the final resting place for these men and their machines.

According to AeroQuest, an aviation archeology organization that locates and documents old aircraft crash sites, 25 U.S. Navy aircraft crashed in and around the Salton Sea between Feb. 13, 1942, and Aug. 29, 1945.

Nineteen of these crashes resulted in the death of one or more crew members.

The first fatal crash occurred on Dec. 27, 1942, when the PB2Y Coronado went down in the sea, killing seven men — including plane commander Lt. William O. Carlson — and injured two other members of the crew. The Navy said the bomber was on a routine training flight when it crashed that Sunday afternoon in the north end of the sea. All bodies were recovered.

On June 20, 1944, Lt. Donald A. Innis, 28, was over the Salton Sea on a rocket-firing flight when a rocket body exploded prematurely on the starboard wing. His F6F Hellcat fighter, which was in a 14-degree dive at the time, went into a slow spin and crashed into the sea. Innis was based at Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake.

The pilot, who joined the Navy in 1940, was stationed at Guadalcanal when Americans seized the island. He was on a new assignment after having also served in the Atlantic.

Salton Sea was used as ‘Wake Island’ movie set

Missing bodies found

The Nov. 15, 1943, edition of the Long Beach Independent reported that the body of a naval aviator “who had been dead for some time” was found at the edge of the Salton Sea, near Bertram. The story said he “apparently had been killed in a jump in which his parachute failed to open.”

Another discovery was made less than a year later, as the story in the Sept. 23, 1944, Fresno Bee reported: Maricopa Navy flier locates bodies of buddies killed in 1942.

“The perseverance of Lt. Cmdr. James F. Patterson of Maricopa is credited by the Navy today with the discovery in a Salton Sea canyon of the wreckage of a Navy plane and the bodies of two fliers missing since Feb. 14, 1942.

“Commander Patterson was the flying companion of the two fliers — ensigns Louis M. Winn Jr. of San Diego and William Page of Ontario. They became separated from Patterson during a search for planes overdue on a flight from San Diego from Norfolk, Va.

“The additional search for Winn and Page was abandoned after many fruitless flights by Patterson. He was assigned overseas but when he returned recently, he renewed the hunt, spotted the wreckage and led Marines over rugged terrain to the spot.”

The back story: On Feb. 14, 1942, a single-engine T-6 Texan (SNJ-2) advanced trainer aircraft — with Winn and Page aboard —disappeared while participating in the search for four F4F-4A Wildcat aircraft en route from Tucson, Ariz., to Naval Air Station North Island near San Diego.

The flight of aircraft flew right into a fast-moving winter storm that brought rain and snow to the mountains of eastern San Diego County.

Only one of the Wildcat aircraft managed to land safely. The three missing aircraft weren’t found until the 1950s. Two of the aircraft, discovered in Canebreak Canyon in San Diego County, had crash-landed just 200 feet apart from one another.

Accidental discovery

Another aircraft known to have gone down in the sea, post-war, was discovered by Navy divers in January 1999 while searching for a Piper Cherokee 180 that crashed into the murky waters on Christmas Day 1998.

The body of Grace Chatham, 82, was found floating in the lake on Jan.1, 1999. The body of her husband, World War II vet Robert Chatham, 80, who was piloting the aircraft, washed ashore and was discovered by campers near Salt Creek Beach on Feb. 12, 1999.

Authorities believe the Escondido couple crashed on the way back from dinner at Chiriaco Summit.

About two weeks after Grace’s body was found, Navy sonar equipment detected an aircraft at a depth of about 40 feet. But it wasn’t the Piper Cherokee — it was a World War-II era Avenger torpedo bomber.

Four months later, after matching the aircraft’s Bureau Number 53477 to official records, it was discovered the bomber crashed into the sea on Dec. 30, 1947, and sank as its two-man crew — a pilot and a gunner —stayed afloat with life rafts until being rescued.

The aircraft lost power on a navigation training flight from San Diego when it plunged into the water.